Episode 22 - Infection

A few weeks ago I went for an epic walk through the jungle (if you missed the post about it, then you can find it here). I got a whole load of cuts all over my legs. I cleaned them up nicely when I got back and although some cuts took longer to heal than others, they were all perfectly. Until this week that is. During lessons last week, we visited a nearby village where lots of staff at New Tribes Mission live. To get there we had to wade waste deep through the local river (yes that’s right, all the New Tribes staff who live in the village have to wade through the river on their way to work each day).  As we crossed the river a big cut on my shin softened up and I didn’t think too much about it. That was a mistake. A couple of days later I noticed that the wound on my shin was looking angry and there was redness spreading from it on my shin. I cleaned it up and thought nothing more of it. The next day a boil appeared on my foot. Just a coincidence right? I mean it’s a good 12 inches away. Then my foot started to swell up and feel like a baby elephant was sat on it the whole time. Now that’s definitely not normal, but I know to treat all of these things so I figured I’d be fine. Then I started to get aching pains between my hip and my knee. I don’t know what to do about that, so I finally admit to myself that I probably need some advice. Fortunately tomorrow was Sunday, so my plan was to casually drop it into conversation after Church to see what everyone thinks, you know, but that’s a subject matter that just naturally slips into a conversation. Well I did, and when my boss heard he reassured me that my leg probably wouldn’t fall off any time soon, but still promptly told me that I needed to see a Doctor.

 

The Clinic

Now luckily for me, I have easy access to a well-equipped clinic at New Tribes Mission. I am very fortunate in this respect, as such good access to medicine and trained medical is not something that many Papua New Guineans have, and I am truly thankful that I do. All the staff looked after me incredibly well, and it turned out that the wound had become infected and the infection had spread. I was given some pills and amazingly started to feel much better after just a couple of days. It’s hard to get my head around the fact that something as simple as some pills, which not everyone here in PNG would be able to get access to, can make my infection go away, an infection, which if left untreated, could have been fatal. It’s a good reminder of the kind of reality that many Papua New Guineans face every day, and how easy it is to become unwell here. It may sound slightly crazy, but I’m glad it happened, it’s opened my eyes and made me think about a few things, and it’s been a great induction to the clinic at New Tribes!